Epson EcoTank L355 Review – Can Ink Really Last 2 Years?

I have bought so many printers over the years – albeit the basic in the range – that have cost me a fortune in ink, are used to print 5 pages and then forgotten about for the next year… when it transpires the printer has simply given up and a new one is required.

Epson say that their EcoTank L355 will not need ink to be refilled for up to 2 years… ridiculously large claims… I like the ballsy statement, so was glad we could put it to the test…

Claims:

The L355 offers a ultra low-cost per page for both black and colour printing. It comes with around two years’ worth of ink* in the box, that’s enough ink to print up to a massive 4,000 pages in black and 6,500 pages in colour, without needing to change an ink cartridge.

* – based on a users average monthly print useage.

Now that… is a lot of printing! 😉

The Epson EcoTank L355 it is a work horse in every sense imaginable. They say good things come in small packages and they are not wrong! The EcoTankL355 is deceptively small and compact (easy to store on a work desk and is perfect for home and office use) for such big claims regarding how many pages it will print and how long the ink will last… however, after a good try I do believe the claims!

The printer comes complete with the power cable, 4 separate inks and the installation disc – though it is very easy to download the required driver from the Epson site.

The unveiling of the Epson EcoTank L355

Don’t be smart like me, actually read the instructions! After setting everything up, I could not figure out why the printer was not working… after reading the easy to follow instructions, I realised I need to charge the printer ink. A simple press of the button and in less than 20 minutes the printer was ready to get to work. The whole set up took less than 30 minutes, including adding the ink.

Epson EcoTank L355 ink

The Epson Eco-tank is an All in One wireless inkjet printer – meaning it does everything and you don’t need to be hooked up to the printer, though there is the option of linking your computer via a USB cable (not included). Printing, copying and scanning is all so much easier knowing you will hardly ever run out of ink due to the extended print performance.

The quality of the print is good, even with images. The clarity of images is very good and crisp, so I will definitely be using the Epson EcoTank to print family pictures for albums, though still rely on photo copying services online for better quality pictures.

With regards to speed, I timed 21 colour pages printed in 3 minutes, which isn’t too bad. The printer never sounded like it was faltering and carried on powering through… hence the work horse tag! It may take me quite some time to put the 4,000 black and white sheets capacity before more ink is required to the test, so for me, the ink is going to last for ages! I do not feel the printer is noisy either, even when feeding a new sheet of paper through and it was easy to ignore the fact it was there, working away.

Epson EcoTank L355 Inks

I love the fact you can actually see all the inks in the tray, making it much easier to keep a track on levels (Epson claim a refill will be required every 2 years). The inks are individually shrink wrapped, very easy to open, simply remove the foil from the actual bottle, snap the top from the ink lid and away you go. Make sure you have a towel underneath the ink tank whilst pouring, just in case – the ink as you would expect is quite runny and if it splashes on your clothes, it will not come off. However, the ink is ridiculously easy to pour so do not be afraid that you have to manually do this.

Does the cost reflect value for money – absolutely! I realised I was paying around £25 for a set of ink cartridges for my old printer than I was renewing several times a year. The ink in the Epson EcoTank is going to last much longer than that. The separate ink bottles are currently priced at £7.99 each on the Epson site so much cheaper than normal ink cartridges that you would have to replace more often anyway.

It will be interesting to re-visit this review and update it every so often… really I just need to start printing out more and really put it through its paces!

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Epson EcoTank L355 Review – Can Ink Really Last 2 Years? was last modified: August 14th, 2016 by S1m